Immediate to Advanced Dieting (2nd section):
Let’s dive into my final article in this two part series on Immediate to advanced dieting. Tying what you have learnt from my blogs in reaching that pinnacle to a truly awesome body and sustaining healthy living. Here are the following tips and recommendations;
1) If it looks man made or commercial type of food they are probably made with a large amount of preservatives, artificial ingredients, chemical additives and hormones. Adding a diet of refined, processed, low fibre foods, animal fats and we have a ticking time bomb ready to explode. The 1st tip is therefore eliminating as much of these types of foods as you can from your diet or a gradual minimization will go a long way in feeling better and reaching your goals.
2) Increase your protein intake as it takes more energy to break down than any other dietary nutrient such as fat. An easy rule to follow is the maximum amount of protein can be hunted of fished. Although it also comes from animal by products such as eggs, milk as well as legumes. The amount of protein you should eat is linked to weight. Approximately 0.8 to 1.5 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. It has been shown that high protein diets increase metabolism which is one of essentials to weight loss.
3) Eat breakfast – its essential you start your day on a positive note and not trying to catch up on energy levels throughout the day with heavily sugared foods.
4) Eat slowly and stop eating as soon as you feel full. This is important as most of us when we are hungry gorge ourselves with food quickly and don’t realize we just ate a whole pizza!!!
5) As a reward let yourself have “sometimes foods” (and drinks) – This can be your once a week treat. You’ re never going to have sustainable and realistic weight loss if you eliminate something you love and go with the all or nothing mentality. If you love ice cream have some, if you like eating hot chips have half a packet. Just try halving normal portions or having it half the time
6) Eat heaps of low glycemic index (GI) foods as these make you full. Also mean you lower insulin in your blood, which is better for fat loss. Have a lot of legumes (e.g. chick peas, lentils, beans) and eat low GI bread (e.g. Burgen breads). However note that high fibre doesn’t equal low GI and low GI doesn’t equal high fibre. Balance is always the key in healthy living and especially weight loss!
7) Watch what you DRINK. Nutrition is all about balancing between food and drinks. Not alcoholic drinks by the way or soft drinks. It’s best to always drink at least 2 litres of water a day, herbal teas and black tea or coffee. Drink less soft drinks, fruit juices, milky/ sugary coffees and alcohol. Ill give you an idea of what having a big night on the town and drinking 9 standard beers or wine equals too. It is roughly 2000 calories!!! That is close to your daily amount of calories you’re meant to have in a day and this is only just beer/ wine and a few hours drinking it. No wonder we call it the infamous “Beer Belly”.
8) Carbohydrates tend to be viewed by most people as either ‘good’ or ‘bad’. It is not always black and white and as you realize I am not a strong advocate of the ‘no carb diet’. However it is essential that to know your body and to consume carbs that you can tolerate. This means for some people eating high carb meals all day might feel great doing it. While others get huge insulin spikes and suffer energy and mood slumps after a high carb meal. This sensitivity is called GI and it is a measure of how quickly a specific carbohydrate breaks down and release glucose (sugar into blood).
There is no physiological need for carbohydrates in the human diet since our bodies actually get glucose from non carb sources. Warning; don’t go with just eating meat only diets either. Balancing your diet is always the key in healthy living and sustainable results.
9) When it comes to nutrition and weight loss, fat is the mystery among most people. Its like the fart in a lift full of 15 sneaky people letting a silent one go!!! Fat has gone through some tough times recently and has been getting some slapping around from the missus. There is some good fat around however and essential fat we should all be implementing in our diets such as: avocados, nuts, olive oil, coconut oil, flaxseed oil, fish oil, omega and butter that will help your body become – and stay – lean, strong and healthy.
A healthy diet includes a mix of omega 3s and 9s, saturated and unsaturated fats and minimal amount of omega 6s
The bad apple of the fats is ‘Trans fatty acids’, or man made fats normally in breads, cookies, pastries, doughnuts etc etc. please try and avoid these as much as possible……Please
Concluding thoughts:
These last few articles have hopefully tied everything you have read so far up until now, into a neat little package with a cute red ribbon. This will be my last article of this series relating to the important aspects with losing weight and/or gaining muscles in previous articles.
The last few articles have tried pushing and guiding you further along in achieving higher goals for yourself. As long as you can have realistic and high goals you should be able to live a sustainable healthy lifestyle. Remember to always push yourself and please don’t go into plateaus or ruts where you feel that the hard work you’re doing is not paying off. Remember what losing weight and having a healthy lifestyle is all up too, including the motivation and drive to sustain it. Opposite from the famous catch phrase, “Every cigarette is doing you damage!”WELLevery run, every apple you eat, every day you stay active will result in a longer, happy and worthwhile life where you can be proud of your body.
